As if its bloody thirsty history and forbidding walls weren’t enough (see our audio tour London and its ancient City) the Tower of London is to launch a series of what it calls Twilight Tours.

 Hosted by one of the tower’s world-famous resident Yeoman Warders, visitors will be amazed and appalled by the tales of past residents, royal gossip and the secrets kept within these ancient walls.

  Tours run from 7pm Time – 8pm on Wednesday evenings during November, January, February and March.  They are priced at £25.00 per person with some additional costs.

  Our London mp3 tour explains that the site of the Tower was already a Roman settlement when the Saxons arrived and built a fortress here.  After William the Conqueror had defeated the Saxons, he started building his own fortress here in around 1078 to defend himself against a possible attack by another foreign army but he also wanted a stronghold that he could also use to subdue his new subjects here in London.

  The White Tower is the most famous part of the Tower of London complex.  It was built using stone imported from William’s native Normandy.  When it was finished in about 1100 it was the greatest castle in England – a magnificent but terrifying sight for visitors to the capital.

  Although it saw coronations and celebrations, the Tower of London was more of an office than a royal residence – English kings preferred other, more comfortable, less draughty palaces elsewhere in and around London.  Instead the Tower became an administrative centre, a place to keep the Crown Jewels and a site for the Royal Mint - something that remained here until the nineteenth century.

  But by the late fifteenth century the Tower of London had also become associated with imprisonment and execution.  During the nineteenth century it became a tourist attraction, although in 1941 Hitler’s Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess, was held here briefly, and in that same year, Josef Jakobs, a German spy, was executed by firing squad.

  The cells complete with hundreds of years of graffiti are still very atmospheric and the Crown Jewels exhibition is pretty stunning.  Look out for the ravens too – they’re huge and black and they’ll bite your fingers off if you’re not careful.  It’s said that if they ever desert the Tower, the Kingdom of England will fall.

 

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